THE HISTORY OF ANATOMICAL SCIENCE 283 



nected groups of phenomena. The most useful of 

 servants to the man of science, they are the worst 

 of masters. And when the establishment of the 

 hypothesis becomes the end, and fact is alluded 

 to only so far as it suits the ' Idee,' science has 

 no longer anything to do with the business. 



The nature of plants and animals, on the one 

 hand, and of the human mind on the other, is 

 such that the process of generalisation and that 

 of classification, which is the correlate of generali- 

 sation, take place instinctively and find expres- 

 sion in common language. The terms ' beasts,' 

 ' birds,' ' fishes,' are the names of certain groups 

 of animals in the popular classification ; and, 

 though the user of them may not be able to put 

 his thoughts into words, they imply that he has 

 perceived that the things he calls by these 

 several names have certain common and dis- 

 tinctive characters. And that perception, when it 

 is put into words, is a generalisation, which, in so 

 far as it is accurate, also expresses an empirical 

 ' law of Nature.' 



The classifications of the scientific taxonomist 

 are of two kinds. Those of the one sort are 

 merely handy reference catalogues. Such are the 

 ' artificial ' systems, useful in their day and lor 

 their particular purpose, but of no other value. 

 The others, known as ' natural ' classifications, 

 are arrangements of objects according to the sum 

 of their likenesses and unlikenesses, in respect 



